FIRE!!! (updated)

The photography site I am a member of, "Clickinmoms", has started having weekly challenges. This weeks challenge was FIRE. You are supposed to take your best shot of anything that makes you think FIRE and submit it and at the end of the week they choose a winner!! I decided to try it. You can only enter one, so I entered the first picture. This is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. I usually just take pictures of the girls so this was a little different! I probably won't win, but it was fun experimenting and trying new things with my camera!!

UPDATE....I WON!!

I am so EXCITED!!! Now my picture will be published in a book! :)

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Liam UPDATE (from Ross and Daradee)

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2009 Liam is stable! His vitals have been consistent and within the ranges the doctors prefer. They’ve been running some neuro scans on Liam as he has these little episodes where his BP, end line and CO2 level all jump around. They want to make sure he’s not having seizures. This is all protocol after coming off ECMO and being on lots of sedation. This little guy has been through so much, two open heart surgeries, cannulization, decannulization all in the last 10 days. All the while his sternum has been open and only one chamber is pumping blood for his entire body. This little boy is TOUGH and just keeps fighting. He’s fighting because he knows his mom and dad want him to be here. We’ve accepted all possibilities but we’ve never stopped hoping and praying, neither has Liam.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2009

I’m not sure how I can even express myself right now. We’ve known from the get go that this was going to be challenging, that we would endure a fair amount of heartache. But that we could get through it, that these procedures are done all the time and with great success rates. His heart defect was unique but nowhere near impossible to correct. We know things don’t always go as planned and there would be set backs. There is no easy way to say this, Liam had a major stroke. They feel it has to do with the clotting, the clotting that they have no explanation for because he doesn’t have a “Clotting Disorder”, they think??? They’re not sure when it happened, maybe 3 days ago, maybe longer. They don’t know the extent of the stroke other then it was “major”. They can’t do any CT scans or an MRI because he’s not stable enough yet. There is nothing that they can do right now and that is frustrating for us. We have to wait to see if Liam can recover, we're prepared to wait until the end of time if need be. I pray that God has mercy on Liam, I just don’t want to see him in pain or suffer. We will get through this, Daradee and I are strong enough but I never expected to go through blow after blow after blow. Pray for us.

Baking 101...

Ian, my brother, was in the cooking mood yesterday!! He emailed my mom to get her recipe for cornmeal mush or whatever you wanna call it, lol! He must have been thinking of his childhood or something because he remembered when my mom use to make this cornmeal breakfast. Bart calls them hush puppies, I call them cornmeal mush! Anyways, my mom would make this cornmeal paste, refrigerate it overnight, and in the morning cook it. She would cut it into slices and then fry it in the fattiest grease she could. Then she would slather them in butter and dump a load of syrup on them for us to eat. It is amazing that none of us are fat!! She liked to add butter to everything. Anyways....Ian decided to make this. Well, we have all agreed the cornmeal mush was a BUST!! Ian whipped it up last night and threw it into the refrigerator to chill. This morning he popped out of bed and started frying his bacon. Ya know, he needed that bacon grease for his cornmeal sticks!! As he fried them all up, Emma and Lauren both watched with anticipation. They were a little apprehensive as they weren't sure what was going to be for breakfast. Lauren said, "forget it, she wasn't even going to try it". Big Surprise.....but Emma was game! Bart just made his coffee and laughed as he left for work. I know he was secretly glad he did not have to try this!! When it was all done and served we sat down to eat our meal. Ian said it was OK, but he thinks he liked it better when he was a kid. Emma immediately spit it out...and this is a kid who loves asparagus and spinach...and I ate it and thought it tasted pretty much the same as when I was a kid...like crap! Sorry mom! Hey, but I did like the warm rice in milk with raisins. I wonder if I would like that now as an adult???

Well, Ian also decided to bake some cookies....Cranberry Oatmeal White Chocolate Chunk. Now those actually turned out pretty good. They smelled wonderful while they were baking, but both of the girls hated them!! Emma was starting to get a little frustrated with Ian's concoctions. Her last words were...."Why couldn't he have just made regular chocolate chip?"

LIAM UPDATE:

GOOD news today! To start Liam had an Echo scan of his heart this morning. His heart function is much better then yesterday, blood is now going through his PA’s/shunts, the regurgitation seemed to stop, his blood pressure is good, his bleeding has slowed down and he is registering an O2 saturation. Dr. Cleveland had the OR team come up to do an “Exploration” of Liam’s heart. He removed the clips in Liam’s shunts, all went well. Dr. Cleveland plans to wean Liam off ECMO tomorrow or Friday to see if his heart/organs will tolerate it. If so then he’ll take him off ECMO, if not he’ll leave him on until he’s ready. They still don’t have an answer about the clots. They’re thinking it was ductus tissue that wasn’t removed when they attached his PA’s. If Liam had a clotting disorder, it wouldn’t make sense for his blood to clot while on so much heparin. AND it would make sense for him to clot and bleed at the same time. We won’t know for sure until he’s off ECMO but we feel better about it. We prayed for a miracle, Liam is not out of the woods yet BUT we’ll take all this positive energy and parlay it into a miracle.

MOM!! Come LOOK!!

My Lauren....she is a NUT!! She yells for me the other day to "Hurry, come look at her". I run in the room looking around. I see no Lauren. Then I hear her little giggle. She has contorted herself into Scout's crate, along with Scout!! She thinks she is so funny and tells me to hurry and get my camera. "Put it on the blog!!" She says!! I told her I could get a call from Child Services if I put this picture on the blog. She just looks at me all crazy since she doesn't know what Child Services is! "C'mon, mom just put it on the blog!!:, she says. So no one call me in!! :)

Liam update....

Monday

The OR team just went into Liam’s room to decannulate him. The surgery before Liam’s (other patient) took longer then expected. They’ll start by stopping ECMO and see how he responds, if he does well then they’ll disconnect him entirely. Before we left he was trying to take breaths, he wants to be off this machine and eventually the ventilator.

Another disheartening outcome today, Liam will need to have another surgery tomorrow. His heart function is good; his kidneys are now working but his PA's (Pulmonary Arteries) are not getting blood flow. Liam’s PA’s were separated at birth and they connected them during the last surgery. They believe that the PA’s collapsed thus restricting blood flow. They will know more tomorrow morning as they will do a scan before his surgery, the scan will reveal the problem.

If they’d not caught Liam’s arrhythmias while they were connecting his sternum, then the outcome could have been much worse. There were several highly specialized medical individuals bedside to immediately react and correct the problem. We are FORTUNATE. If they’d taken Liam off ECMO earlier then today, his PA’s may have been functioning fine, only to fail at a later date without being able to immediately correct the problem. We are BLESSED.

Tuesday It’s 1:00 AM and Daradee and I just left Liam’s room. They had to call in Dr Cleveland (surgeon) to open up Liam as he had excessive bleeding from his chest. His vitals took a dip, they increased his blood volume and it seemed to help the problem but they wanted to make certain there weren’t any other issues. This won’t delay or change his surgery in the morning just another bump in the road. He is Fighting for his life; he made sure not to live down his name. Liam= Courageous Warrior Lots of Love Ross, Daradee and Liam Murray It’s 2:30 AM and we just spoke to Dr. Cleveland. He said that this won’t change this morning’s surgery, Liam had some additional oozing but he’ll be ok for the next few hours. He very much wants Liam off ECMO after tomorrow’s surgery. Daradee and I are going to try and sleep now as today is a big day.

Liam get better...we are all praying for you!!!!

Please pray for Liam....

Here is a picture of Liam resting before his surgery the other day. When I last updated you, was recovering from his surgery and was doing well. However, when they went in to close his sternum the next day, the doctors saw that his heart was not functioning correctly. They have had to put him on a life support/EMCO machine.

As of today, they said Liam had a quiet night. They started “warming” him up yesterday to bring his core temperature up. Initially they kept his core temp low as it’s better for his vital organs being on the ECMO (heart/lung, life support). Now that he is warmed up they’ll look at weaning him off the ECMO. The Docs will reduce the support of the ECMO to see if his heart, lungs and kidneys will engage. It’s a slow process and it may not be successful the first go around and that’s ok. He’ll be ready when he’s ready. The good news is all his vitals are good and his heart had two days to rest.

Please think good thoughts for this little guy!!

Barack Obama-The 44th President of the United States!

What a day!! A day that will go down in history!! A day for Change. A day for Hope!! Lauren told me all about it when she got home! She said they watched it in class when they first got to school!! Yay!! Then she drew this picture of Obama!! He kinda of looks like an African American Popeye!! LOL!

I also wanted to send out some good vibes for Daradee's baby. Little Liam goes in for heart surgery today and needs all the love and support he can get, so please say a little prayer for him!!

UPDATE......This was just posted by Daradee and Ross. :) Yay!! I am so happy!!

Liam is out of surgery and everything went really well!!!! He was just wheeled up to his room and we are waiting in the family waiting room until they get him stable. They were able to repair his Pulmonary Veins and attach a shunt to his Pulmonary Artery. His oxygen saturations are good along with his vitals. They brought him up with his chest open as they have to allow time for the swelling to go down. They should be able to close his sternum tomorrow. The next 2-3 days are critical but the first step is done and done well!

They said this was their courageous warrior on his way back from the operating room.

Ice Skating!

Hillary and Tyler were up for the 3 day weekend to spend some time with their dad!! We all decided to go ice skating on Sunday!! The top two pictures were taken in the car on the way to the ice rink. All of these pictures were taken with my point and shoot while I was either in the car or ice skating so they are not that great of quality. But there was no way I was going to take my nice camera on the ice, I am just not that good of an ice skater! LOL. But actually, once I started skating, I wasn't that bad!! I think it is all of the Wii Fit I have been doing. Ya know those balance games really do help out!!

Look at this crew, all ready to go!!

Emma did a great job...waaaaay better than last time!!!

Lauren actually cried at first because last time she was doing circles in the middle, and this time the ice was sooo slippery. It took her about a half an hour to get the hang of it again, but then she was back out in the middle doing her circles!

After ice skating, we went to IKEA and then to Frye's to pick up a few things!!! :)

And so it begins......

I was wondering at what age I would be having conversations that go like this:

Emma: Mom, can I get a cellphone?

Me: Ummm, no!

Emma: Why??? Carter has one...and Jordan, and Josh and Alijah and this person has one and that person has one.

Me: Emma, you are in third grade, NO!

Emma: Why do you have to be so mean, everyone but me has one?

Bart (stepping in): Well Carter's dad is nicer than me? No.

Emma: Dad, Carter's parent's are divorced.

Bart: Well then Carter's mom is nicer than your mom.

Emma: That is soooooo unfair, Can I have one in 4th grade?

Me: Yeah right, NO!

Hmmmm, something tells me this is just the tip of the ice burg!!

Good times, people, Good times!!

Whoop, Whoop!! I got a new lens!!

A couple of days ago, I got a new lens for my camera!! A nice, new, shiny Tamron 28-75 2.8. I love this thing!! However, it was a little heavier than I thought it was going to be!! I guess I am just used to my 50mm lens! Anyhooooo...here are some random shots I took with it over the past few days!!

This was right after she came home from the groomers. She always looks all poofy from having her hair blown dry! We think she looks better after her first bath because she doesn't look so FUZZY!!

Ian's First Day of School!

My brother Ian has decided to make a career change and go back to school!! He started winter term this past week at a college that is close to our house!! While he is going to college, he will be living with us!! The girls love this! A new playmate!! Bart loves having someone to do all his little tasks around the house. The things he intends to do on the weekend, but are already done during the week by Ian. Things like re-caulking the bathroom, adding a new outlet in the floor, stacking the washer and dryer..ya know, little things like that. I love that he does the dishes!! I have it made...Bart cooks dinner and Ian cleans up!! LOVE IT!!!!

So here is a picture of Ian on his first day with his favorite cup Suzanne, (oops I mean santa) gave him, heading out the door to his first class!!

Get Well Soon Carol Anne...

Poor Carol Anne....she is slowly recovering from knee replacement surgery. Ouch!! Bart saw her yesterday and said she is stuck upstairs for awhile. She is not allowed to go on the stairs. Emma drew her this picture in MS Paint to hopefully make her feel better.

I know exactly what she is going through...remember that one time I was jumping on that trampoline next to my sorority...when my leg hyper extended and my ACL tore into two separate pieces...that time I had to go in for a 6 hour surgery to fix it....OUCH!!! I know that is not fun!

GET WELL SOON!

Yeah...Bart fixed it, well with a little Microsoft help!!

OKAY...I am up and running again!! Whew!! This world is waaaay to dependent on computers!! I thought we were all going to have a heart attack!! No way to check emails, no way to log into Facebook (it is fascinating to see what my friends all the way from grade school are doing) or to check out TMZ.com or Perezhilton.com. I need to know what all those celebrities are up too!! LOL!! Anyways, Bart spent hours on the phone with Microsoft and ended up having to re image my computer!! This was all fine and dandy until I found out all my programs would be lost!! But now we have them all reloaded and everything in working order. I only lost my saved emails, which were saved because they were important, so that is not good!! So if I don't email you..it is because I lost your email address!! ;) Oh and thank you Bart for fixing everything!! You are so patient!!

Here are some pictures of Emma's class from when they went to the pumpkin patch!! I forgot to post them!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!! Look what the boring Wilkinson's did!! NOTHING!! We had no plans for New Years Eve! None, Zilch, Nada!! At first we didn't care...but then as the night grew closer we were terribly bored! So we packed up and headed down to UVillage for dinner. We had a great dinner at Atlas and then once at home we sat around looking at each other...wondering what all our friends were doing. What were all our friends doing?? Were they all out having fun?? Without us, while we sat around playing the game of LIFE?

Luckily we talked to some the next day and they also stayed home (so they say)!! The upside is that I woke up with no hangover!! Now if I would have went out, there was a great possibility I would have woke up with one as it is getting harder and harder to bounce back after a night of drinking...like a 2 day bounce back period!! :)

At 9PM we watched the ball drop in New York and let the girls go out and pop their Champagne bottles filled with ribbons...then we told them New Years was over and it was bedtime...they were all nestled in their beds and Emma looks at her clock and says.."Mom, it is only 9:15." Can't pass anything by her!! LOL...but it was still bedtime!

Now on to see how long until I break my New Years Resolutions!!